Trees Fight Crime

The Japanese knotweed
on Philadelphia’s vacant lots
can grow 10 feet high and
thick enough to hide a rusty
trailer. Over the last decade,
the Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society (PHS) has hacked
through the overgrowth
in thousands of these lots,
replacing dumped tires and
mattresses with a tended lawn,
a couple of trees, and a tidy
wooden fence.

The spruced-up open spaces
end up making whole neighborhoods
safer and healthier.
“The purpose of the greening
program was really to...

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